Think long and hard about throwing more money or a new title at employees who may be on their way out the door. You certainly want to keep your best employees, but think about it… Offering a staff member more money or a new title after they’ve told you that they have another job offer not only looks desperate; it reflects poorly on your ability to be proactive about growing and developing staff who are working hard, (with no plans on leaving anytime soon). This isn’t lost on your employees who will feel like the only way to develop in one’s career or to get a raise is to say that you have another job offer. It can feel like subtle blackmail.

Because your employee wants to make more money:

Yes, there are managers who will inflate an employees’ job description just to guarantee that the employee will receive a bump in salary to reflect the “new” responsibilities. This tactic can backfire big time and affect the morale of your other staff when they learn that their colleague got an increase and is essentially doing the same job. (Many employees do compare salaries and job duties as much as we’d like to think that this information is kept confidential).

Your employee has been in the same position since forever.

This on the surface actually seems to be a very good reason to give someone a promotion, but more thought needs to go into moving forward.

Working in the same position when the tasks and responsibilities of the job have not changed over time is not a valid reason to promote your employee.

A change in the depth and breadth of a role are very valid reasons. So how do you know in this case when a promotion or an increase in salary is valid?

Assess whether the scope of your employee’s responsibilities have changed over time. Is your staff member now responsible for tasks that require more autonomy, or that have become more complicated over time? Are they now responsible for making decisions independent of you that potentially have broader impact on the client, department or company? If so, it makes sense to review their job and then increase their salary or change their job title as appropriate.

The bottom line is that promoting staff should meet a business need -The need to continually grow and develop staff by increasing the scope of responsibility and risk taking in their roles.

Promoting staff for any other reasons is doing both them and the company a disservice. These employee promotion guidelines will help you to manage the process in a way that is a win/win for your employee and your business.

Get more tips on interviewing, hiring, managing and engaging your employees. Dianne Shaddock is the President of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips and the author of the eGuides, "How To Supervise: What Your Boss Never Told You Before You Took the Job", A Step-By-Step Guide For New and Seasoned Managers and "How To Find and Hire the Best Employees".